“The Protestant Whore,” and other posts from last March…

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I started this blog a year ago.  My first post came on March 12, 2015, with “Birdman,” the movie. That initial post explained how I signed up for the domain name, “Georgia Wasp,” while adding that there was a problem. Back then there was a web-site, DatingPsychos.com, and one of its bulletins told of a crazy guy – “Alias ‘Georgia Wasp.’” The site said this guy was a “pathological liar…   married many times and has cheated on each wife with multiple partners!”  So I had to start off with “a heads up:  I’m not that guy!!!

Also in that first post, I explained how I chose “THAT ‘WASP’ NAME.”

Moving right along, on March 18 I posted Jeremiah and the Parable of the Dirty Underwear.  For the Bible version, see  Jeremiah 13:1-11.  (An “interesting read.”)  It also cited a Harry Golden essay with a similar story.  As to that I wrote, “few people would use ‘schmooze’ and ‘death’ in the same sentence, let alone the same title, but Golden did.”

The next stop – metaphorically speaking – was Pink Floyd and “rigid schooling.”  That post compared modern musicians like Pink Floyd with old-time Bible prophets like Isaiah. For example, in The Wall Pink Floyd took issue with – among other things – “an out-of-touch education system bent on producing compliant cogs in the societal wheel.”  In a similar way – according to guys like Isaac Asimov – the Bible prophets of 3,000 or more years ago were also considered the “radicals of their day.”  Isaiah for one took great issue with the kind of priesthood that was “primarily interested in the minutiae of ritual.”

Exodus: Of Gods and Kings, out on December 12 in U.S. theaters tells the story of Moses (played by Christian Bale, left) rising up against the Egyptian pharaoh Rhamses (played by Joel Edgerton, right)I posted On “Exodus: Gods and Kings” on March 28, 2015.  I noted the natural inclination to compare that 2014 movie with the 1956 DeMille film, The Ten Commandments.

That included one big difference:  In Ridley Scott‘s 2014 version – including the image at left, of Moses and “Pharaoh” – God was portrayed by “a bratty kid with an English accent.”  I also noted that “the Moses played by Christian Bale was more human, more like us today and therefore more believable.”  I ended that post with two points:

First:  To the icons that we choose to throw our cares and responsibilities on – like Moses – we followers are pretty much a pain in the neck…  Second:  Exodus: Gods and Kings is a pretty good movie and well worth seeing, if only in the interest of broadening your horizons.

And finally, I closed out the month of March 2015 with “When adultery was proof of ‘loyalty.”

Looking back – a year later – I think I may have been a bit prescient.  Harry’s essay on “when adultery was proof of loyalty” was set during the time of the Commonwealth of England.  That came after the Execution of Charles I, in 1649.  Basically a bunch of radical conservatives took over the government, shook things up, and made every Englishman’s life miserable.

Which naturally gave rise to a whole lot of quasi-religious hypocrisy:

One may easily see how desire for office or promotion led to hypocrisy.  If sour looks, upturned eyes, nasal twang, speech garnished with Old Testament texts, were means to favor, there were others who could assume them besides those naturally afflicted with such habits.

At the time I asked, “Does any of this sound familiar?”  In closing I noted one of Harry Golden’s main points in his essay, that history repeats itself in cycles.  Which led to the question:

“Which cycle are we in now??”

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Joseph N. Welch (at left) tries to figure a way to escape McCarthyism

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The upper image is courtesy of the article Nell Gwyn, included in Charles II of England. The full caption reads: “Nell Gwynn was one of the first English actresses and a mistress of King Charles II of England.”

The lower image is courtesy of McCarthyism – Wikipedia.  See also Joseph Nye Welch – shown in the lower image at left – as “head counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for Communist activities.” See also – re: history repeating in cycles – Historic recurrence – Wikipedia.

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